Fox Love ::story 2::
by BlackFireProdigy
Summary: Ume and the new girl can't get along. Who is this new girl anyways? What happens when the boys need help & the 2 girls must join forces to save their friends, and can they become friends themselves? R&R! HxOC, KxOC2. Title used to be: Kitsune Suki
1. Kami Meets the Gang

Well, this is the 2nd story that I've made. They go in order so if you haven't read the first one, read it! Read that first, then this, if you chose not to, what ever, but it'd be easier if you did. This story is for Kurama-lovers and dedicated to my evil friend who loves Kurama…hi evil friend!

* * *

Ume was sitting on a chair near a desk in the family dojo. She was to help any customers and register them in for martial art lessons. He saw an elderly man come in with a little boy and she greeted the man that owned an apartment a couple of blocks away. 

"Hello Mr. Tanaka. Are you here to register Akira for lessons again?" she said as she started writing.

"As a matter of fact, yes."

"Alright. You know what to do. By the way, I hear that someone moved into the apartment you own. Who is it? Anyone I know?"

"Why are you so curious?"

"Well, your apartment isn't very far away, I can be a good neighbor and say 'hello' some time."

"Well, she's some orphan, was at some kinda boarding school when she was found. No parents, a shame really. Ya mind giving a tour of the city, just to be a nice neighbor and all."

"Uh, sure, why not? Ok, Akira is done being registered. Good-bye Mr. Tanaka."

Just as the aged man was taking his leave, a young girl came into the dojo and was looking around.

"Hello. If you wish to register, please come to the counter." Ume bellowed to the girl.

"Oh, I don't want to learn martial arts, I was just taking a look around. You see, I moved in just a couple of blocks and I noticed this place. You don't see many dojos in the middle of a huge city like this."

"And that's exactly why we have so much business."

"Makes sense, I think."

"You're the new kid that just moved here right? I've never seen you around before, so you must be. What's your name?"

"It's Ts-. I mean, Kami. It's Kami Taiko."

"Mines Ume." They shook hands.

"Well, you said you wanted to see the place right? I'll give you the tour."

"What about your job?"

"Huh? Oh, I'll just take a break. It's not like the parents can fire me, my mom won't let my dad do it." She said as she started writing something on a piece of paper. She folded the paper and made it stick up on the counter. It read, "Back in 10 minutes."

"Your parents own the dojo?" she inquired as they walked around.

"Yep."

Ume showed every part of the dojo to her new found friend.

"Well, that's it."

"What about there?"

She pointed to the 'house' section of the building.

"Did I mention I also live here and my parents don't let anyone they don't know, into the 'house'?"

"Actually, no, you didn't."

Suddenly Ume's phone rang and she picked it up. The caller was her friend, Yusuke.

"_Hurry up and get your butt over here! We're at the café. Hurry up!" _he said so loud even Kami was able to hear him.

"Was that your friend?"

"He's a pain in the neck, but yea, he is."

"Guess you should get going. It sounded urgent."

"You can come along and meet my friends."

"Just don't get near Hiei." She thought to herself, showing signs of anger.

"Uh…alright, but I don't mind not going if you don't want me to." She noticed Ume looking angered.

"Huh? No, no, I don't mind…"

They made their way to the café down a couple of blocks. There, three guys were waiting at a table. When the two girls spotted them they made their way over to the table.

"Hey guys, this is a new neighbor of mines, Kami. Kami, these three are Yusuke, Kuwabara, and Hiei. Hey, wait. Where's Shuichi?"

"He has some exam and had to study. I don't see why he cares so much."

"Who's Shuichi?"

"Another friend of theirs." Hiei replied coldly while pointing to the other three, implying that he wasn't their friend.

"What's that around your neck?" Ume asked, pointing to a shiny object around Kami's neck.

"It's just a necklace."

"Oh. I could of sworn…" she just stopped herself from saying, "I could of sworn I sensed something weird about it…" but she just let it go and sighed.

The next day, it was Monday. Yusuke, Kuwabara, Ume, and Hiei were going to their school as Kami went off to a different school.

When Kami arrived she had trouble finding her classroom, up until she bumped into a red-haired boy and dropped all her books. She scrambled onto the floor to try and pick them up as the red-haired boy did so as well.

"Sorry about that, I wasn't watching where I was going, I was studying for an exam." The boy apologized.

"Why does this sound so familiar?" she thought.

"It was really my fault, really."

"I don't believe I've seen you here before; are you new?"

"Yes, my name's Kami."

"My name is Shuichi.

"Oh, you must be Ume's friend, right?"

"Yea. How do you know Ume?"

"We met yesterday, along with some of your other friends. You have great friends." She said, but then she caught a hint of awe while talking to Kurama and she just stopped talking and blushed slightly,

"Thanks, oh, here, I think I took some of your books by mistake." He handed her the book. "What's your schedule?"

Kami handed Shuichi a piece of paper and he looked through it.

"Great, we have all the same classes; I can tell you which classes to go to."

"That's great." She had that sound of awe (the respect kind of 'awe', not the 'terror' kind) in her voice again. "But I have a question…"

"What's up with all the girls swarming around you?" she asked, slightly frightened and pointing at the herd of girls.

"I guess I'm pretty popular…but don't mind them, they won't do any harm…" he didn't look as though he was sure of what he said but Kami trusted him anyways.

* * *

The second story came so fast because I was thinking about ideas at school because I had nothing else to do. What else was I was gonna do? Pay attention; psh, yea right. 


	2. A Date? Two Dates?

Chapter 2 has arrived. For those of you, who are reading this and have read the first story, REVIEW IT! Also, you can put a good review, or a bad review. Reviews are your opinion, so it doesn't matter to me whether it's good or bad, just review!

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Shuichi guided Kami through the horde of girls to show her around the school and show her to their next class. As they passed, the crowd looked at the two strangely. They've been trying to get his attention since they met the guy and he has never given the same attention to them, as he was giving to the new girl. They got a little jealous and left.

"That was odd. Where'd they all go?"

Kami couldn't help but wonder what had happen to the giant group. She looked around and shrugged it off. She studied the new environment carefully so she wouldn't have to ask Shuichi where to go 24/7 but it was hard for most of the hallways looked the same. They arrived at their next class, science (I HATE science…). Kami looked around. There were no remaining seats in the room.

The teacher grabbed Kami and introduced her to the rest of the class and set up a small desk and chair in the front of the class next to, of course, Shuichi. Kami was content with her seat BECAUSE it was next to Shuichi, but she wouldn't admit it, not even to herself.

School finally let out, it seemed like it lasted for days. Kami was leaving and saw Shuichi. She waved her hands around and ran towards him. She eventually caught up and grabbed his shoulder. Shuichi jumped a little.

"Oh, sorry, did I scare you? I thought you heard me when I shouted towards you, what were you doing that you couldn't hear?"

"I was just thinking about some things I suppose."

"Really, what is it?" she bent forward quite eager to learn as much about the young boy as possible.

"I guess it's just that I felt like I've met you before."

"Maybe you're just losing it." She said half smiling and half serious. She too was having the same feeling, although she couldn't put her finger on it.

"I suppose so. Come on, I'll walk you back home."

As they went back to the apartment near Ume's dojo, Ume spotted them. She was going to say 'hello' but stopped short and hid behind the wall once she noticed Kurama (or Shuichi) with Kami.

"Thanks for walking me home Shuichi. It was nice meeting you and thanks for showing me to all the classes…"

"It wasn't any trouble; you don't have to thank me, I was glad to do it."

Kami blushed as Shuichi bowed. He ran home and left Kami walking into her room slowly and dazed. She was half-way through the door when she heard a voice from behind her.

"So, how was your date?"

"Huh? UME! It wasn't a date…I was just walking home from school-"

"With Shuichi." She smirked.

"Will you quit that?"

"So, you DO like him right?"

Kami just blushed, backed up toward the door f her room, and shut the door.

"Oh brother." Ume rolled her eyes and went home.

Tuesday finally arrived. Ume didn't sleep well the night before; she had something that was bothering her in the back of her mid but she couldn't put her finger on it. She had a creepy feeling as she looked at her silver locket she put on her night stand.

At school that day, Ume's school got a new computer lab. It was their first week there. Yusuke and Kuwabara were playing each other in an on-line shooting game that Ume helped them hack into, while Hiei was trying hard just not to have his computer crash (can't blame him, he's never used a computer before), and Ume was typing furiously trying to find something about Kami, her parents, or the jewel she had.

She had no luck what so ever. By the end of the day all she ended up getting was a detention for not paying attention. Kuwabara and Yusuke got detention too of course, and Hiei got it for making the computer crash, and somehow, making all the computers in the room crash.

"Hiei, you're absolutely terrible with computers." Ume mocked in a murmur.

"You aren't exactly the best fighter ever." He whispered back.

Yusuke suddenly decided to pipe in, "Will you two shut up, I'm trying to sleep."

The teacher suddenly came out of no where, bent down and yelled in to the threes' ears, "Hush you three, or you both stay in for an extra hour!"

They rubbed their ears and stayed silent.

When detention was over, Yusuke left to go to his house and Kuwabara went to his.

"Hey Hiei, where are you staying tonight?"

"Where ever, I suppose."

"That's great!"

Hiei glared at her.

"I mean, you can stay at my place tonight. I believe my mother said that it was going to rain tonight."

"I guess, being a fire youkai (demon/apparition), I shouldn't get wet."

"Alright, come on." She grabbed Hiei's arm and ran home.

On the way they stopped at Kami's house.

"I wonder if she's home. I'm gonna go inside and apologize to her for what I said once before. Just head to my room, my parents will let you in. They'll recognize you, so no need to worry about how to get in."

"Just don't catch a cold. I don't want to catch it from you."

"Oh you're are so thoughtful." She said sounding mostly sarcastic.

"Hn."

Hiei went left and Ume went right.

Ume knocked on Kami's apartment door when she found it once again. She saw the door was open and let herself in. She searched around for Kami and finally found her looking out the window.

"Were you spying on me and Hiei?"

"Huh?" she turned around finally noticing Ume and was taken by surprise, "Well you spied on me and Shuichi and besides, what are you doing here?"

"I WAS gonna apologize for spying, up until I saw YOU doing it."

"Fine, fine. I was caught. Sorry, sheesh."

"And…?"

"And…" she avoided Ume's glares and continued with her sentence. "You like Hiei right?"

"What? I do NOT!"

"Yea right. You and I both know it."

"How about this, we both know who we both like, let's just both pretend this never happened and pretend neither of us was spying on the other starting tomorrow. Alright?"

"Deal."

"Now that we are off to a fresh start…I've got to go."

"Guess you can't leave your boyfriend alone."

"…I'll just leave, telling myself I didn't hear that…"

"Later."

"Sure, whatever."

Ume started to leave when she stopped. She turned around, raising her finger as though she was going to say something but she stopped and saved her questions for some other day.

-

Just as Ume was leaving, Kami too wanted to ask her something but by the time she gathered the guts to ask, Ume was long gone.

* * *

Now, I've had to do some work to make the characters sound like they would in the anime. Kurama is supposed to be mature and all that, Kuwabara is idiotic (sorry to you Kuwabara fans), Yusuke is a mix of so and so, and Hiei is cold. If you notice something they would NEVER say (besides the romantic stuff, and CERTAIN other things that must be used), please say so in a review of the chapter you found the error/s. Thank you for helping me make my FanFics better. 


	3. Trouble in Both Worlds

Chapter 3 had arrived; in this chapter there are 'people' speaking in a different language, so if the words are in bold and italic, the 'people' are speaking some other language. Ok, that's all, enjoy. : runs away from the mob:

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Kami suddenly remembered she had forgotten a book report in her desk and it was due the next day. She ran down the streets to get back to the school. When she reached it, she hopped the locked up fence and picked the lock to her classroom. She took her book report and left the class, locking the door behind her. She hopped the fence again and when she landed on the other side, she was greeted by 5 ugly demons.

They had scale-like skin and red, beady eyes. Kami was going to jump over to fence back to safety but when she turned around; she saw that on top of the gate were 5 more demons awaiting her.

"Hello little girl, our boss is paying us quite a bit for your capture, so to make our job easier, why don't you just come quietly?" one of them said.

She panicked for a split second, realizing who sent the demons to capture her. She then told herself that panicking wasn't going to help, and started running.

She looked around trying to find somewhere to hide. She ran to her left, towards some trees. The 10 demons ran past her as she hid behind a trunk and Kami ran in the opposite direction.

As she ran she accidentally stepped on a dried up leaf. It made a sound that wasn't very loud, but to Kami, the sound rang it her ears as though it she was standing right next to a church bell on Sunday. The demons had heard the sound of the dead leaf and turned around and saw her. They continued to chase the poor girl.

_In the mean time…_

Ume was walking under a cloak, headed to a secret break in the barrier between the human world and the Makai (demon) World. Fortunately for Ume, the cloak had a large hood and she would be able to get around the Makai World without being noticed.

She planned on getting information on Kami in the demon world if she couldn't find anything about her in the human world. She got through the barrier and as she entered the world of demons, she was stopped by a rather large and ugly demon

"Hold it lady." He held out his hand, "I gots to make sure you're a demon. Those humans has beens making a lot of troubles for us demons (these aren't typos; this demon just has bad grammar)." The demon sniffed Ume. "Alright lady, you're clears."

"The demons are getting a little paranoid." She thought to herself.

She continued walking seeing many demons just walking around, not noticing her.

"Don't you think it's a little dangerous for you to be here all by yourself?" a voice came from behind that made Ume's heart leap. It was Hiei.

"Hiei, what are you doing here?"

"I should be asking that same question to you. I saw you jumping through the break in the barrier and followed. After all, I got bored waiting for you to get back."

"I completely forgot you were still at my house. Sorry about that."

"Hey, it's that Hiei guy." A voice came from a distance away.

"Isn't he working for the humans? He's a traitor!" another said.

"He's with that girl, that girl must be a traitor to demons too. Get them."

"Great, you blew my cover Hiei!" Ume yelled at Hiei as they ran for their lives. They had over 3,000 demons after them. "Why'd they have to discover us in the MIDDLE of Makai?"

They kept running when the two got to a dead-end, the walls were too high to jump over and they had nothing to help them climb up. Hiei drew out his katana and Ume was in fighting stance, ready for a fight. A cheap shot was made form one of the demons as Hiei was fighting an enormous fiend. The blow was a direct hit on his head and knocked Hiei out. Ume rushed by him and was completely out numbered.

_And now it's back to Kami…_

Kami kept on running down a, supposedly empty, street until she bumped into some guy coming out of a book store.

"Shuichi, boy am I happy to see you two." Kami said breathlessly. "A bunch of demons are chasing me, ya gotta help me."

Shuichi stared at her in confusion for a second but then saw the demons going toward then and he grabbed Kami's arm and ran towards some trees to hide under for a while.

"Why are they chasing you?" he questioned the tired girl.

"I…I…I don't know, they just came out of no where. Oh no, here they come. We have to get out of here."

"Great, I can't use Spirit Energy in front of her, but what's the point of hiding it? She already saw the demons." He argued with himself in his head but decided to just use it. He did so and all the demons were cut into halves with one swing f his Rose Whip. Kami was surprised by Shuichi's strength.

"Thank you." Kami said under her breath. Kami sat there and the next thing she knew, everything went black.

_Back to Ume and Hiei with their troubles…_

Hiei awoken staring up at some 4-legged animal. He rose slowly, realizing he was sleeping on a bunch of leave. He started wondering where he was and what happened to Ume. He looked at the 4-legged animal and realized it was a wolf.

"Huh…What the heck is going on…?"

"Oh, Hiei, nice to see you awake, I was getting worried." It was Ume coming into the large cave which Hiei lied in.

"Where are we?" he stared at the wolf. He looked around and saw 3 more wolves and 2 pups.

"Well, after you were knocked out, I somehow transformed into a wolf demon. And when that happened these guys appeared, killed off some of the demons and helped us get here."

Then wolf that Hiei saw when he first awoken started to growl and bark at Ume.

"What's going on now?"

"He's speaking to me."

"And you understand him?"

"Yup."

The wolf started speaking again, he and Ume conversed while Hiei was left sitting up on a bed of leaves, completely confused.

"**_Your name is Ume and you're a wolf demon, am I correct?"_**

"_**Yes."**_

"_**Very interesting."**_

"_**Why is that?"**_

"**_Years ago a mad wolf demon hunter came and tried to capture us. The leaders of our pack, Kane and Mika, tried to distract the hunter so the rest of us would get away." as he said this, Ume translated for Hiei. "They had a female child, they were about to hand her to us so she'd be taken care of but they didn't have a chance to do so for the hunter found them so they ran away with the child. The hunter found them and killed the two."_**

"**_And you think that child is me?"_**

_**The creature nodded. **_

"_**If it WAS me, how'd I escape?"**_

"**_We are not sure, we knew never knew if you were still alive for your body was never found. We couldn't be sure if you were killed by Akio as well."_**

**_Ume stopped translating for Hiei and just continued speaking to the demon in amazement, "Wait what did you just say? Akio?"_**

"**_Yes, soon after that he came back to get us. When he realized you were no where to be found, he searched for you."_**

"_**Ironic, I came here searching for information about a friend of mine and I find more about my own past. Not only that, I found my family hiding cowardly in some stupid cave."**_

"_**We are not proud of our fear, but ever since the leaders died, we were unprotected."**_

"_**Pathetic."**_

"**_By the way, I must know, is that your man over there?" he pointed his noise towards Hiei._**

"**_HUH? _**NO! I mean, **_NO!" Ume said, screaming._**

Hiei was confused, he had no idea why Ume was so angered.

"Ume, would you please tell me what you two were talking about?" Hiei said annoyed.

"Oh, sorry about that." She translated for him, everything but the question the wolf asked her.

"But that doesn't explain why you screamed."

"Oh that, it was nothing."

He saw Ume didn't want to talk about it so he changed the subject.

"So, this is your pack eh? Maybe you should stay with them, judging by the looks of it, they are going to need the extra help. I guess I should go back to the human world before Ko-Enma gets angry with my absence; I'm still on probation and stuck in that same city. Farewell Ume." He waved his hand and started to walk out of the cave.

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This was the longest chapter I've ever typed, but it does make sense since in this chapter, two people are doing two different things, in two different worlds, at the same time. : soaks hand in hot water: Ow, ow, ow, ow, owy. My hand hurts right now, so I'm gonna go get bandages. Later. OW! 


	4. A Small Arguement

Its chapter 4 now, it took a while to finish this one because I sort of ran out of ideas for a while…XP Oh well, here it is, chapter 4!

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"You jerk!" Ume hit Hiei on the back of his head and the wolf she was talking to earlier looked up. "How can you possibly think about leaving me here!"

"Aren't you going to stay with your family now that you've finally found them?" he said, facing the door, rubbing his head, not willing to face Ume.

"Nope, I've decided not to, they can handle themselves just fine but you guys on the other hand…"

"What ever you say." He said sounding half relived and half unfeeling.

"That was very cute." The wolf demon spoke up.

"What the, how are you speaking, wolf?" Hiei questioned.

"I may look like a wolf, but I'm a demon, and I can speak your language just fine."

"Then why didn't you say so before?" Ume asked confused.

"You all assumed I couldn't speak, so why ruin the fun?"

"This gives me a pretty good reason to leave." Ume said staring at Hiei, pointing to the wolf.

They quietly left Makai, trying not to be noticed. When jumped through the break in the barrier they fell on top of Shuichi carrying the unconscious Kami.

The two scrambled up to their feet and Ume apologized for landing on top of the two. She then saw Kami unconscious.

"Wow, what happened to her?"

"A lot has happened but I'll explain later. Right now we should get her to my house, it's the closest."

"Really…alright, but Hiei and I will carry her, you look beat and besides, Hiei did get a pretty long nap." She looked at Hiei.

"Hn. I'd rather not."

"Ok, I'LL carry her…"

After walking a few blocks they finally arrived at the apartment that Shuichi and his mother lived in.

"I…thought…you said your house…was the closet…" she said breathlessly, nearly collapsing.

"You were the one who volunteered to help out." Hiei retorted.

Shuichi unlocked the door to his and let the group inside.

"So spill Kurama," she then noticed Kurama's 'mother' was in the next room. "Uh…Shuichi. What happened to you two?"

"What about you guys?"

They exchanged the events of their long night.

"Shuichi, it's getting late, are your friends staying over tonight?" Shuichi's mother asked.

"I think so Mother."

She nodded and went to bed.

"So Kitsune (meaning fox. It's Hiei's nickname for Kurama a lot of people use in FanFics), why would demons be after this human?"

"I'm hoping to get some answers to that when she wakes up, when ever that will be."

Ume was once again having that strange feeling in the pit of her stomach. The feeling that something was seriously wrong (see story 1, chapter 4 for more info).

Hiei and Kurama crowded over Kami and Ume suddenly felt like kicking Kami out the window, along with Hiei but she resisted the urge to do so.

"Argh…if you guys don't mind, I'm going to sleep. Kurama, ya got any extra pillows and blankets lying around this place?"

"I'm sleeping going to get rest too. Oh, and don't bother getting pillows for me, I've slept without them before."

"Well in that case, I'm going to take a walk outside."

"I'll come too, if those demons were after her, there are sure to be more and I doubt you can handle it alone. I'll stand guard outside."

"Maybe you should be protecting her. Ya know what? You go do that for all I care, I'm just going to sleep after all…"

"Huh?"

"Good night you two."

"Wait a second, get back here girl!" Hiei ran after Ume as she stomped out of the room angrily.

Shuichi was alone in a room with Kami unconscious. He stepped back slightly.

"Heh, how ridiculous. What am I getting so flustered about?" he laughed at himself.

He looked over his shoulder and saw Kami on HIS bed, sleeping. She suddenly started stirring. Kami woke up and saw Kurama.

"Shuichi…what happened? Where am I?"

"Don't you remember?" he said, trying to stay calm. "You blacked out after I…we escaped from the…uh…gangsters that were chasing you."

"Gangsters…?" Kami then remember what REALLY had happened. She knew Shuichi was lying, but she couldn't figure out for what reason.

"Does he know about what happened to me? I sure hope not. I'll just go along with his charade until this whole thing is forgotten." She thought to herself.

"Oh, is that all that happened?"

"Yes, it was. They cut you a few times. See?" he pointed to some bandages that covered some cuts on her arms, legs, and one on her shoulder.

"Who put this bandage on my shoulder?"

"That was Ume, don't worry, Hiei and I were in the other room while Ume and my mother were putting bandages on you."

"Oh, thank goodness."

It was strangely quiet for a while, Kurama was about to leave when Kami spoke up again.

"I do remember one thing though, it was you who helped me when the 'gangsters' were after me right? I just wanted to say thanks."

"Like I said before, I was happy to do it." He smiled.

The conversation was interrupted by Ume and Hiei bursting through the door.

"Get back here! I thought you were going outside so I offered to go along! Why are you being so annoyed!" Hiei yelled.

"I'm annoyed because you won't get off my back!"

"Argh, get back here! I'm not done talking yet."

They circled the room once and left, still screaming.

"It's getting late, we should turn in. I'll sleep on the couch tonight."

"No, wait, I'm a guest, you should sleep on your bed."

"I don't mind."

"Oh, ok. What about those two? Are they going to hurt each other?"

"No, they fight from time to time, it never gets bloody. It's just their way of communicating."

"Oh, that's very strange."

"Well, they make a good couple that way. Oh, don't tell Hiei I said that. I'm going to turn in now. Good night Kami."

"Good night Shuichi."

* * *

Tee hee, Kami and Kurama make such a kawaii (cute) couple. Hiei and Ume is a kawaii couple too. It's so adorable making them fight and make up. Hehehe. :runs away laughing: 


	5. A Restless Night

For those of you who don't know what a review is, and I'm naming any names…MILLIE, it's when you write/type your opinion on something and give advice on how I can make it better. Not a summary and not an insult to me, just because you know me in real life, MILLIE-.-

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Kami woke up in morning rubbing her eyes. She looked around and she noticed she was in Shuichi's bed. Shuichi then entered the room.

"Shuichi, how'd I end up in your bed?"

"You fell asleep on the couch and you were cold so I carried you on to my bed."

"Oh no, I'm so sorry, I was supposed to stay on the couch." She blushed slightly.

"It's ok, anyways, Hiei and Ume are still asleep in the living room and my mother made breakfast."

When they entered the living room and they saw Hiei sleeping by the window and Ume sleeping on the floor.

"Should we wake them up Shuichi?"

"I wouldn't I were you, it doesn't get pretty if you wake them up early, especially after a long night of fighting with each other."

They left the room and went into the kitchen. Ume then started to wake up and saw Hiei on the window. She walked up to him, looked at him, and sighed. She looked around and took her pillow from the bed and she hurled it at Hiei.

"What was that for?"

"Just to wake you up." She looked at the ceiling.

"I'm tired from last night. Just leave me alone woman."

"Yea, I guess we fought pretty hard. I think our screams are still ringing in my ear. Why do we fight so much anyways?"

"They start randomly and just stop. It's always like that."

"Well, it gets annoying."

Hiei sat up.

"So what do you purpose we do about it?"

Just then Kami came in.

"Great, you guys are awake, and talking. It's time for breakfast."

Ume and Hiei stared at each other for a while.

"Did I miss something?" Kami said, confused.

"Eck, it's nothing. I'm gonna go get something to eat. You comin' Hiei?" Ume asked slightly annoyed that Kami came in so suddenly.

Hiei remained silent and just followed Ume into the kitchen leaving Kami behind completely confused.

"Well, thanks for letting me stay at your place, Shuichi. Laters." Ume called out as she was leaving with Hiei. It was an hour after they had breakfast.

"Well, last night wasn't exactly what I was planning on doing…" Ume began talking.

"Hn."

"Well, since we both went to Makai and Kurama's house instead of my place, ya want to come over tonight?"

"I have things to do tonight."

"In other words, you have demons to rob and priceless artifacts to steal."

"Exactly."

"Alright, well…I better get home…Maybe tomorrow night then. Bye Hiei!" she started waving and running backwards toward her house.

"Wait a second…" Hiei started to talk but Ume already ran away. "I truly don't understand that girl."

_Now back to Kurama's apartment…_

"Thank you Shuichi, for letting me rest here, and I'm sorry for taking your bed."

"This again? Don't worry about it."

"I don't want to be of anymore trouble but may I ask how do I get back from here to my apartment? I was still unconscious while I was brought here and I don't know how to get back." Kami saw Shuichi looked away. "I'm sorry for asking. I can find the way myself if you don't want to go too."

Kami began to leave but stopped, but not because of her own free-will, but because something grabbed her arm and stopped her. Shuichi was on the other end of her arm, making sure she doesn't go; he was staring at the floor, a shadow covering his eyes. Then looked up and smiled.

"Don't worry, I don't mind."

"I…I…thanks Shuichi."

She followed Shuichi silently back to her apartment. She stared at the ground the whole way and followed the sound of Shuichi's footsteps.

"I hope he's not mad at me. I have been pestering him a lot. Ok, from now on I'll try and stop asking for help with every little thing and try to do things on my own." She thought to herself. She looked around and couldn't see Shuichi anywhere. "Oh no, where'd he go? I can't believe I lost him, now he'll be angry at me for sure."

She started running straight ahead along the street and bumped into Shuichi at the corner.

"Kami, there you are. When I didn't see you following me, I thought you got lost so I went back. I thought more gangsters were after you…"

"Don't worry, I'm fine. I can see my apartment from here. Thanks for walking me back. See you at school Shuichi."

He nodded and began to leave.

"I can't BELIEVE I made such a fool of myself in front of Shuichi. Why didn't I just pay attention to where I was going?" she yelled at herself, after locking the door to her room.

-

"I hope she was OK, she didn't look too happy when I left. It was my fault for letting her get lost. I was too busy thinking about why those demons were after her, instead of watching out for the demons." Kurama sighed.

-

Kami sat down on her bed and messed around with the jewel around her necklace.

"Maybe I should just get rid of this thing. All it has been doing is giving me troubles anyways…" she starting to think to herself. Then she started remembering things of her past. She remembered a man and he held the jewel in his palm. He started screaming frantically something about how important it was to make sure nothing happened to the jewel and suddenly Kami stood up.

She shook her head around and tried to forget the horrible scene that was stuck in her memory. Kami looked out her window and saw Shuichi going home. Then she saw Yusuke and Kuwabara coming out of a nearby arcade. Right from behind them were a group of punks from some other school. They were about to jump Kuwabara and Yusuke from behind and they all had knives. Kami ran out of her apartment and caught up with the two guys. One of the punks were about to stab Kuwabara when Kami kicked him in the face.

"Where'd you come from…uh…what was your name?" Yusuke said.

"Save the conversations for later, shouldn't we take care of them first?" she replied.

One of the guys starting running towards the three with his knife out and was going to stab Yusuke in head. He just ran up to him and gave him a good punch in the stomach. Kuwabara kicked some guys in the forehead and the beating began. Kami was attacked by a guy behind. He swung his knife and Kami barely managed to dodge it. He then leapt into the air, trying to cut Kami, "I don't know who the heck you are, but you're dead girl!"

Kami just stepped to her left and the guy fell on his face and Kami kicked him to a wall. A few seconds later all the punks were knocked out.

"Wow, where'd you learn to fight, Kami?" Kuwabara asked.

"I picked it up…around."

Suddenly they heard police sirens. They ran for it before they were caught. They ran through an alley and got a safe distance from the cops.

"Oh no, I left my necklace back there. I think one of those punks cut it off with their knives!" the girl cried out.

"Oh well, you can just go to some jewelry store and replace it."

"You don't get it Yusuke, that necklace is one of a kind and…well, all I can say is that's its VERY important. We have to get it before the cops do."

* * *

Hmm…the ending for this chapter isn't my best work but it's late and I'm tired so I couldn't decide how to end it…: yawn: Night people. 


	6. Secrets of the Wolf

Sorry it took so long to get this chapter in. I won't keep you waiting anymore. Enjoy! By the way, from now on the dashes (these things -) will tell you that the story is taking place somewhere else. Now I don't have to change the font and put '_In the mean time…_' and all that stuff. You probably noticed the dashes from the last chapter.

* * *

Yusuke and Kuwabara looked at each other for a second and just shrugged.

"Sure, we have nothing else to do."

"Thanks you two."

Followed by Yusuke and Kuwabara, Kami ran back to the place where they beat up the jerks that attacked them. Two policemen were just staring at the gangsters and started to talk.

"So, what are we going to do with these guys?"

"They don't look too beat up, and besides, you know how long it takes for an ambulance to get around here. Not to mention that we have to wait for it to arrive. Let's just leave the kids here. They'll live." One of them smirked. The men began to leave.

"At least they left pretty fast, but are those guys going to be ok?" Kami asked, concerned.

"We didn't knock them out that hard. They may be out for a while but it's like that guy said. 'They'll live.' Let's just look for that necklace of yours."

Kami nodded and finally found it lying on the floor. She quickly picked it up and put it into her pocket.

"Thank you, you two, for helping me get it back." After thanking the boys she ran off without another word.

She got home quickly to repair the string so it'd go back around her neck.

Ume walked out of her house and towards a restaurant to eat lunch. As she passed by a street she noticed a mess of guys on the floor and Yusuke and Kuwabara in the middle of it. She walked over to them.

"What did you guys do?"

"Wasn't us who started it, we didn't even see it coming if it weren't for you friend, she actually throws a pretty hard punch."

"You mean Kami? I didn't know that. Maybe I should try and fight her some time." She looked like she was ready to beat on Kami and not stop.

Kuwabara started to argue with Ume. "You can't fight her. That would be like taking the cane from an old, blind guy."

"Don't worry I was just kidding," she waved her hands around. "Well, I see you two later. I have to get somewhere right now."

Yusuke stood, and looked at Ume as she ran off, and looked at Kami who ran off in the other direction.

"Have you noticed how badly those two have been going at it lately? Ume was the one who introduced us to Kami. Why do you think they hate each other so much now?"

"I don't know. Why? Are you going to do something about it?"

Yusuke began grinning.

Ume ran down the streets until she got to a small, quaint house. She knocked on the door and was let in by a happy woman. She had short hair, looked cheerful and old, and she had bright blue eyes.

"Excuse me. Is this the resident of Mrs. Nozomi?"

"Yes, yes. Hello child. Welcome, come in, come in. Is there anything I can do for you?" she said, trying to be very friendly.

"Well, as a matter of fact, yes." Ume went inside and sat down on a chair near a coffee table. The old lady sat down as well and starting drinking tea. "I believe you knew my parents, Mrs. Nozomi. Or should I say Etsu?"

The old woman started coughing and choking on her the cup of tea when she heard her name being revealed.

"Excuse me? I have no idea who you are talking about. You must have me confused with someone else."

"No, actually, I'm entirely sure that you are Etsu. I have researched and 'asked' many demons about my parents. At first I got nothing, but eventually I heard your name from a one of them."

"Your parents…? No, that's impossible. Are you Ume…? It cannot be. You are not supposed to be alive." The elderly lady's jaw almost fell off due to her amazement.

"Well, apparently, I am. According to all the things I've heard, you used to be a friend of my parents. Is there anything you can tell me about them?"

"I…I…I'm not sure if I can help you. I barely remember anything."

"I prefer not to beg, but I MUST know." Ume stood up and hit the table with her hands. "I have no idea what kind of demons my parents were. I just wanted to know, anything you can tell me will help."

The aged female sighed.

"I'll tell you as much as I can."

"Your parents were sort of like the Spirit Detectives of Makai. They would stop any wandering humans that accidentally got into Makai. They stop demons from hurting each other. Exact same thing as you and your friends do. They helped humans as well. Other demons didn't like that fact that they helped humans. They got mad enough to send some wolf demon hunter after your whole entire pack."

"Akio…" Ume whispered to herself.

"Yes, Akio." Ume was surprised that the demon-woman was able to hear her. She continued speaking, "Your parents were the only ones who helped demons and humans, but the hunter was ordered to take out the whole pack unless they didn't try and protect the two. They were closed to being killed. Now the rest of them are hiding somewhere."

"Ok, but I don't understand how you fit into any of this."

"I was a demon who had been living among humans. One day some human managed to find out about me. He was a clever human. He was going to reveal my identity to everyone. Your parents stopped the man and every so often, they'd come back and visit to see if everything was all right. Eventually, we became pretty close friends."

Ume remained quiet.

Etsu gave out a small giggle. "Once I actually look at you, you do kind of look like your father. You act like your mother. Stubborn, determined, easily-annoyed, and straight to the point. Tell me, do you have a liking to young man, but deny it?"

Ume blushed slightly. "NO! OF COURSE NOT!"

"You're like your mother all right. When your parents met me, they were not together. Not yet anyways. She would never admit to have a liking for your father. But they ended up being married."

The young girl started blushing madly. She clamed herself down. "I assure you, I don't like anyone of that kind." She lied. "I have a few more questions. First of all, what is my real last name?"

"It was…uh…I mean, is Hogosha (Japanese for protector). Anything else you want to know?"

"Yes, one last thing. This locket," she clenched the piece of jewelry around her neck,"What is it?"

Kami poked a tiny, but tough, string through a hole on the top of necklace and put it around her neck once again. She let out a deep sigh of relief. She gripped the charm tightly in her fist. She shook her head around.

"Knock yourself out of it Kami." She started to say to herself. "It's too late now. I wasn't able to help them."

She took several deep breaths to calm herself down. She turned around and saw her alarm clock. It read '3:40 PM'. She started to exit her apartment to get fresh air. She wanted to apologize to Yusuke and Kuwabara for running out on them. She figured they would have been long gone, considering the fact Kami spent at least an hour trying to fix her necklace.

She eventually saw them walking down the street, heading for a nearby restaurant. Kami ran up to them, in hopes to join them for lunch.

"Uh…well…" Yusuke began talking. Then they saw Kurama and Hiei coming from behind Kami. Yusuke called the duo over to join them.

"What is it that you want human?" Hiei demanded for an answer. "Why did you call us over here?"

Kuwabara looked around until their eyes came to Kami. Hiei and Kurama got that message that they had to wait until after Kami left.

"Hey, what are you two looking at me for?" she asked, completely puzzled.

"I'm not quite sure what that is, Ume. Maybe you should try getting it open."

"Oh." She was looking disappointed. "That's a shame. Anyways, I should be leaving now."

She thanked the demon for the information she received and left the little house. She began walking, and within a block from the house, she saw Yusuke and Kuwabara staring at Kami. She also saw Kurama and Hiei staring at her.

Ume started getting angry again. "Etsu was correct, about what she had said, but I guess my guy won't like me back." She moaned and turned her hand into a fist.

Hiei's Jagan (ya know, his third eye…) saw Ume approaching and he was about to greet her when he got hit.

"What do you think you are doing girl!"

Ume just remained silent. She and Kami glared at each other for a second. Kami said good-bye to the boys, not Ume, and said that she had to leave.

"Oh no, I'm so sorry to hear that. You'll be missed, I'm sure. Right Hiei?" she glanced accusingly at Hiei.

"What are you looking at me for?"

"Never mind." Ume began to leave as well. "I should be heading home as well."

Ume was about to tell her friends of the information she found out at Etus's dwelling, but after seeing Kami with the boys, and Hiei, she was not in the mood to do much except lie on her bed and mope the rest of the day.

* * *

To make up for the time used up to make this chapter, the next one will come very soon. LATERS! 


	7. Tsume?

Chapter 7 is officially in. Enjoy, one thing though…REVIEW MY STORIES ALREADY! That's all I have to say…for now.

* * *

Suddenly there was a knock on the door. Ume's 'mother', Mrs. Eto, came into the room. Ume straightened herself up slightly and hid her head in her pillows to conceal her tears.

"Are you all right Ume?" she patted her demon daughter on back and sat down next to her.

"Yea, I just…uh…read a book with a sad ending to it."

"Really; where is this book?"

"I returned it to the library…" At this point, Ume was just saying any decent lie that popped into her mind.

Ume's mother slowly began to rise and leave. She stopped at the door. "If there's nothing you want to talk about, then I must leave. I have to get to my class. I must say though, you were never taught to lie about things."

Ume felt guilty but knew her mother would get over it.

She sat on her bed spacing out. She tried to convince herself not to mope over Hiei.

"I don't even like him. Why would I even weep over him?" she kept asking this to herself.

She finally decided to get up and look for her friends, and to apologize to Hiei for hitting him for no reason…twice…

As she was heading for the exit to her house/dojo, she saw many kids practicing with her mother so she decided to sneak out through the window. She eventually caught up with the guys and they were outside a building.

"Sorry to interrupt. Hiei, can I talk to ya for a sec?"

The four were completely off guard and were surprised to see Ume back.

"But…hey…wait a second! I need to talk with these guys first." Yusuke protested.

"Oh yea? About what?"

Yusuke did not want to answer Ume so he just let Hiei get taken away.

"Don't I get a say in this?" Hiei hollered.

"No." Ume dragged him off.

Once they were far enough they starting to converse.

"Umm…Hiei…" she took a deep breath and starting talking again. "I'm sorry for hitting. I let my imagination get the better of me. I thought you were flirting with Kami."

Hiei's eye softened a bit. "And you were mad because of it? Why?"

"ARE YOU THAT IGNORANT!...I mean…" she starting blushing. "I guess I was in a bad mood or something." She rubbed the back of her head.

"I wouldn't flirt with Kami anyways. I would only-" he was about to say more but decided to just shut up. Not only that, he couldn't believe he said the word 'flirt' out loud. Normally he wouldn't, but he did.

Ume smiled at Hiei. Under her breath she thanked Hiei. A tear starting escaping from Ume's eyes, Hiei stretched out his hand and wiped it away.

"You shouldn't cry. That face, it doesn't suit you at all." Hiei tried not to make eye contact with Ume.

Ume looked up and smiled. "I suppose not." she paused for a bit. "I'll just have to stop it then. I don't want to look childish after all." She gazed at Hiei. She smiled and said, "Hmm…I guess this nice side of you is nice, but it doesn't fit you at all."

Hiei pulled his hand away from Ume's cheek immediately. "Hn." He tried to act like he didn't care again.

"Now that's the Hiei I got to know." She smiled and looked at Hiei's eyes which were avoiding hers. "Well I guess you should get back to the others. It seems like Yusuke still wants to talk to you guys about something."

Hiei returned to his friends. Ume stood there. She heard sounds in a street nearby and smelled the odor of demons in the air (she's a wolf demon. Were you expecting her to be deaf? Sheesh). She joined the group and told them of what she smelled. They followed her to the way from which the scent was coming from. They eventually got close an alley, and then, from behind, a demon jumped from a tree ready to attack. Suddenly, out of no where, Kami appeared and kicked the demon away.

She turned around and looked absolutely stunned. She just kicked away a demon in front of her friends. More demons appeared and attacked the 6 fighters.

Kurama pulled out his Rose Whip, Kuwabara used his Spirit Sword, Hiei drew his katana, Ume's fist glowed, and Yusuke was ready to beat up some demons. They all completely forgot Kami was there, and they used their powers.

During the battle, a few of the demons were able to avoid getting killed by Kurama, and tried to attack Kami. Kami stood there and suddenly released a large amount of Spirit Energy at the demons. The next thing the group knew all the demons were slain. Kurama was the first to recover from the shock and he approached Kami.

"What just happened?"

"I used my Energy, just like the rest of you…" she said quietly. "Besides, where did you guys learn how to use Spirit Energy, and why did you lie to me about the night when I was attacked?"

Kurama looked like someone threw a knife through his chest. Kami discovered he, along with the rest of the Tentai (AKA, Spirit Detectives), all had Spirit Energy, not to mention that she figured out that he had lied to her.

"I…" Kurama wasn't able to finish his sentence.

"Shuichi, tell me, what else did you lie to me about?" Kami looked directly at Kurama's eyes.

Kurama looked at his friends and they nodded at him, except Hiei, who didn't care what happened, and Ume who just didn't care for Kami.

The red-haired boy sighed and began telling Kami about his past. That he was a fox demon, that he and his friends fought demons, his real name, all of it. He spilled his guts out.

"I see…Since you're all Spirit Detectives…" Kami began to say. Kurama was expecting plenty of screams and hollering to come from the girl's mouth, but all that came was. "I can trust you right?"

It took a few seconds for Kurama to realize he wasn't being yelled at. Then he started talking calmly. "Yes, of course."

"Then, I'm asking for your help."

"With those demons, I'm assuming."

Kami nodded.

"Why are they after you in the first place?" Kurama continued to speak. "They seem like they are after something. Even demons like those aren't stupid enough to go wondering off from Makai just to kill some random, human girl."

"Where do I begin…? Well, first thing's first. My real name is Tsume Yoshiiwa. Next thing I have to tell you, the demons were hired to do so from the main demon, Ronin, in charge of all this. He is after the gem that hangs around my neck."

"Why would he be after that?"

"Long ago, my father and the rest of my family were to protect this gem from demons such as Ronin. This jewel has extreme powers, but nothing compared to the powers once both jewels are combined. I have one of them, the second one is lost. Konin, nor I, know where it is. Konin wants the one whose whereabouts are known. In other words, mines."

"It is the least we can do for lying to you all this time."

Ume glared at Kurama. "Wait a second, why do I have to help out to?"

"Even if you reject helping her now, once we tell Ko-Enma about the power of the jewels, he's going to tell you to find it anyways, and since you wanted to be Spirit Detective (see story 1-chapter 1) in the first place, you have to listen."

Ume began mumbling. Kurama was right, she had no choice. She was the one who wanted to fight demons, she couldn't back down. "All right, fine! I'll help. But don't you think we should train her to become stronger?"

"What do you mean?"

"Yea, I'm plenty strong. I just beat all those demons…" Kami was cut off.

"Who were all F-class (S class is best, then A, and so on, in case you didn't know), weak, demons, just to let you know. Even a simple punch from Kuwabara could have killed them."

"What do you mean 'even'?" Kuwabara butted in.

"Alright then, each of us will help her train. Kuwabara and Yusuke will both help her train once, then Hiei and Ume, then just me." Kurama said.

"Wait, wait, wait! I agreed with helping get the jewels back and all that, but who said I'm helping her get stronger?"

"If she contains such a valuable item, the demons that are sent to retrieve it will undoubtedly get stronger." Hiei retorted.

Kuwabara decided to take this chance and tease Ume. "If you're not helping out, I guess Hiei and Kami will be alllllll alone."

"Ok, I'll help after all." She then whispered to Kuwabara, "I hate you, ya know that?"

Kami thanked them and Kurama arranged what time the training will begin.

Ume and Hiei had to train Kami with Spirit Energy on Mondays and Tuesdays at 2:30 P.M. Kuwabara and Yusuke were to train her with physical strength at 3:45 P.M. on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Kurama will help Kami with strategy from Friday to Saturday at sunset. Sunday would be a day-off.

"I guess since tomorrow will be Monday, Hiei and I will help her first." Ume said, very miserably. "Laters everyone, I've gotta go."

* * *

Ok peoples, you've probably noticed that this story has kind of directed its attention to Ume x Hiei. Don't worry. Kami x Kurama will be coming up during training. 'Til then! 


	8. Training

Well, you'll probably notice that the first part of this chapter is a little bit different form my usual writing style. I'm not sure why, maybe cause I'm typing this, and it's night time…and it's 10…on a Friday night…and I have to wake up early on Saturday to watch TV (why am I still up?)…Maybe that's why. Or maybe because I've talked about Ume x Hiei so much, I'm making Tsume x Kurama's romance really kawaii (cute)…Who knows?

Anyways, I hope you enjoy this slight change, but it'll go back to normal…soon enough (probably after I sleep). If you like this new way better, then say so in a review and I'll change the way I type a bit (keyword: bit). Ok, enough making you read this, go on and read the chapter!

P.S. I changed a part of chapter 7 but you don't have to go back and see. It was only a tiny change. That and I messed up the schedule of the training, so I changed that too.

* * *

Nearly a week has passed, Tsume was slowly getting stronger. Even after all that time, Yusuke never got to talk to the guys alone. Every time, Ume and/or Tsume would come by.

It was now Friday and sunset was approaching ever so slowly. Tsume sat on top a hill on the outskirts of town. She was wishing the sun would set faster, and then a voice behind her made her heart nearly jump 30 beats. It was Kurama's voice. By now, Tsume was able to recognize it instantly. She saw Kurama walking up the hill and right there and then, she wanted time to just stop.

She greeted Kurama with a calm 'hello'. Kurama walked up to Tsume and starting teaching her ways of combining Spirit Energy with physical attacks.

"That should be enough for today." Kurama announced.

They were both exhausted in the short time of their training.. Tsume held up her water bottle and drank from it. She looked at Kurama and offered him some.

"Don't worry, I don't backwash (ewwwww…XP)."

Kurama smiled at her, thanked her, and took a waterfall (he didn't touch the water's tip, incase you don't know what a waterfall is. Birdie is the same thing). When he finished, he took a deep breath. He hadn't had clear, clean water in a long time. He handed the bottle back over to Tsume. It was already 6, then sun had set early that day and the rest of the night was theirs to do what ever they wanted. Tsume stared up at the sky, stargazing.

"In Makai, there were never such beautiful stars. I guess the human world isn't too bad. In Makai, there were always demons killing demons, so even if there were stars, you couldn't enjoy them thanks to the screams of pain coming from demons." The young girl said aloud.

Although Kurama had lived in Makai for centuries, stealing priceless artifacts, and knew of these things, he did not say anything to ruin the mood. He just sat there and nodded his head.

The red-haired kitsune (fox) put his hands on the ground for support and they accidentally fell upon Tsume's hands. Kurama pulled it away as fast as he could but because he put his body weight on it, he lost his balance and fell. Tsume tried to grab Kurama to prevent his fall but only ended up falling with him. They tumbled down the hill together until they finally reached the bottom.

Kurama landed right on top of Tsume (how embarrassing!) and quickly got up. He patted himself down as if there was dust on him. He stretched out his hand and Tsume grabbed it. She was pulled up, blushing furiously. The two tried to avoid eye contact for a while. Then something broke the awkward silence. It was the sound of Tsume's stomach growling.

"Umm…We should get you some food. It's been a long day. I'll buy; it's the least I can do for what just happened." Kurama turned his head and looked down the street.

After a brisk walk, they arrived at a small fast food joint. They both ordered hamburgers (Kurama eating burgers…That's new…ha!). Before they knew, the sun was gone, the moon was out, and Tsume had to leave.

"Thank you, Kurama, for buying me dinner." Her face was as red as Kurama's hair.

"Your welcome!" he called out as the girl ran into her dwelling.

Sunday past by quickly. Tsume did nothing but lie on her bed and sleep the whole day. She was completely wiped out from the training she went through during the week. But the main reason she was resting up because the next day, she would have to undergo the training of 'Coach Ume.' Last week was absolute torture. The wolf demon kept on pushing her to focus all of her Energy into a blow that was only used to shoot at sky so she'd be drain, then after, she was to fight Hiei (I just thought of some random training, so don't hate me! Don't hate me for making Tsume suffer either!).

Unfortunately for Tsume, Monday had to arrive, and when it did, she was not in a hurry to get to training.  
-  
Ume was changing into her training uniform (even if SHE isn't the one training). Outside she heard a knock at the door. She got dressed quickly and opened the door to find her mother with a small group of kids at her feet. She looked at her mother, "Um…Did I miss something here? By the way Mom…I'm sorry about-"

The woman raised her hand up and stopped Ume from speaking. "No apologies needed. As long as you help me with teaching these kids martial arts that is."

Ume looked at her watch. It read 1:30 P.M. "I guess I have an hour left before 2:30."

Tsume sleepily began to rise from her bed. She dropped back down instantly. She tried again and actually got her feet to the floor…and fell back on the bed. This went on for quite some time…  
-  
Ume's mother taught swordsmanship to the elder kids, Mr. Eto taught martial arts for he couldn't hold a sword (see story 1, chapter 6 for details), and Ume, along with her mother, helped clean, she helped with the registration, and taught the younger kids both. It wasn't always like this. She didn't always have to clean and work at the desk but she chose to. Ume was always up to her neck in work and kids, but she had to help her family with making money. She was not their true child, and ever since she found out, she felt guilty for taking those people for granted.

She stood there, watching the kids swinging their wooden swords at each other, making sure they didn't hurt one another. She was watching some kid by the window when Hiei appeared outside it. She told the kids to continue on while she snuck to see what Hiei wanted, although she knew.

"2:30 already, right?"

Hiei nodded.

"Mom! I have to get going! Can you take over?"

"Sure."

She left with Hiei. They saw Tsume leaving her apartment room and locked the door behind. Despite the fact that Ume disliked Tsume, she was curious and wanted to ask her some things.

"That jewel of yours," she came up from behind Tsume, surprising her a bit, "you said it was one half of another right?"

"Yea. So?"

"Why does it look like it's already one whole."

"Once both jewels are together, they fuse. It wasn't broken in half. It was just like that."

"Are you girls done talking? She still needs to get stronger."

"Yea, yea, just wait. One last question. What kind of demon are you? You keep complaining about 'humans' and talking about Makai."

"I'm a fox demon that controls elements."

"Fox and fox."

"Huh?" Hiei didn't know what Ume meant by her last comment.

Tsume ran over and covered Ume's mouth with her hand. "She didn't mean anything! Umm...I mean, why don't you go to the training area first?"

Hiei shrugged and began to go ahead. When he was out of earshot, Tsume turned to Ume and started screaming at her. "YOU ALMOST SAID THAT I LIKED KURAMA!"

"Oh brother. Don't worry, I can keep a promise. I wasn't going to say anything else about you two. Besides, I thought you didn't like Kurama." She smirked.

Kami blushed, stepped back, and practically fell onto the floor. "Let's drop the subject."

"Sure, sure."

They caught up with Hiei. "Let the torture begin." She said to herself. She looked at Hiei. "I mean, training."

* * *

Sorry it took so long to get this chapter out. I keep putting 'Kami' instead of 'Tsume.' That, and I couldn't think of much for the whole Kami x Kurama thing (I did it again...) I'm better at typing Ume x Hiei stuff. After all, I like Hiei the most. ; Anyways, thanks for the reviews so far. Continue to review please! 


	9. Mini Chapter

Here's a mini-chapter. Actually, it's more like a list of techniques used by the two girls. Besides, I bet your wondering what Tsume learned from her training. Later, they are going to use these attacks, and there's no way I'm explaining it then.

* * *

**_Ume  
_**

Wolf Ray  
Description- The user crosses his/her arms and uncrosses them quickly, releasing a small wave of Energy hitting the opponents. Usually used against multiple enemies.

Wolf Claws

Shooting tiny balls of Energy at the opponent/s. The Spirit Energy shoots from the palms of the user. Also used for multiple enemies.

Weapon Ball 

This is a ball of Energy that forms from the hand. Once created, its shape may be shifted into any weapon (sword, dagger, arrows, etc). Once the new weapon is created, it has traces of the user's Energy to increase its offensive and defensive power.

Engulfing Darkness  
A dark force appears from the user's hands, making its way to the enemy and surrounding them. They are forever trapped within it, not being able to escape. This attack only works on demons that are F+ rank or worse (S is the best ranking of Spirit Energy, then A, and so on).  
-  
That's all Ume's got…for now. Now Tsume's turn!

**_  
Tsume _**

All these techniques just appear from focusing her Spirit Energy. It's not like Kuwabara's. The weapons actually look…solid…-

Lightning Arrows  
The bow and arrows appear. The arrows are shaped like mini lightning bolts and when they hit their target, it shocks, big time.

Fire Blade  
A fiery blade that emits enormous amounts of heat.

Water Staff  
Once spun; this staff can make a tornado out of water. The tornado can be controlled by the staff.  
-

This one doesn't appear out of mid-air-

Wind Slash  
The user swings their arm down and creates a wind that has Spirit Energy within it (my friend's 'Tsume's' idea. She stole from Inuyasha. I added some things to the technique).

They both will have a certain new power…hehe…but don't worry, I'm not

* * *

saying anymore. The chapters will continue! Stay tuned! 


	10. Double Dating

Here's chapter 10…isn't it…? I'm lost! Oh well, let's pretend it is…Wow…9 chapters in already, and this story already has more words than my first one…

* * *

Weeks past, Tsume grew stronger. Her Spirit Energy rose, she got physically stronger, and she knew how to use good strategy. She eventually was used to Ume strange way of training. It actually worked. She knew her Spirit Energy increase the past couple of weeks, although she would NEVER admit it.

There had been exams at all the schools in Japan and Kurama was not only busy studying the whole time, but he also had to use up his free time taking care of his mother who had taken ill. Although it was only a tiny flu, Kurama refused to leave her side, and because of this, Yusuke never got to have his conversation with the guys. After days, Shuichi/Kurama's mother starting showing signs of recovery. Soon enough, Yusuke would have his conversation with Hiei and Kurama.

It was Kurama's turn for training Tsume. Every since the incident, the two always had an awkward silence at the beginning of the training, but sooner or later, the tension would lessen and they'd begin to talk and laugh normally.

Once it was all over, Kurama headed for home to make sure his mother had fully recovered. On the way something from an alley grabbed his collar and dragged him into the darkness. He sensed the creature/s had immense amounts of Spirit Energy and was about to pull out his Rose Whip when he saw who the strange, dark figures were. They were Yusuke, Kuwabara, and Hiei.

"What's going on here?" Kurama was completely bewildered, "Why are you here Hiei?"

Yusuke was going to explain when Hiei cut him off. "The Detective and his baka ningen (idiot human) companion here, dragged got me here the same way you were." He turned to Urameshi (Yusuke people, its Yusuke's last name). "What ever you have to say, why don't you just say it to us individually?"

"Because I know you aren't going to go with it, and if I manage to convince Kurama, he'll be able to convince you."

"And you couldn't talk to us separately because…?"

Kuwabara decided to finish explaining,"Kurama woulda had time to think it over and refuse."

"Considering this is you two speaking, that was somewhat smart of you ningens (humans)."

"Thank you. Wait a second…!"

Kurama cut in and stopped Kuwabara from causing trouble. "What is it that you two wanted to say?"

"Well, you both need to go out on a date."

The two looked stunned.

"No, I didn't mean you two exactly. More like Hiei and Ume, and Kurama and Tsume. A double date."

"And why would we do that?" Hiei asked, furious and annoyed.

"Because those two have been fighting a lot and maybe you two can make them get along. They would be too embarrassed to fight in front of you guys."

"You're kidding right?"

"We should try it." Kurama piped in. "Tsume and Ume have done nothing but fight, argue, and bicker. Tsume is always in a bad mood and Ume is always angry. We should help them Hiei."

It was 3 vs. 1. All of them wanted Hiei to do this, so he had no choice but to agree. "All right, but the only reason I'm doing this is because I'm annoyed at Ume's anger and she some times takes out her anger on my head."

Ume was fiddling with a stick, trying to pry open her locket. Finally, after several minutes of picking, she got it opened. She saw inside it. Nothing. Ume was disappointed; she was really hoping something was in it. She heard coming from the outside of her room. It couldn't have been her parents. They left to a near-by city to train with kids who were paying them extra for a late night lesson (rich people these days…lol). Ume walked to her door and opened it but no one was outside. It took her about 10 seconds to realize the knocking was coming from the window. She opened it to see Hiei outside.

"Do you…want to…go on a double date?" he gulped and began to regret saying those words.

Ume stared at Hiei in amazement. It took several seconds before his words sunk in. "Wait, you said double date right? Who's the other couple?"

"Kurama and…someone else…"

"Um…I…I…I mean…sure! Just give me a minute to change. I'll meet you in the front." Ume closed the window.

Hiei was left outside in the dark, stunned. He couldn't believe Ume just said 'Yes' without any asking any questions (this is him: OO!).

Ume stepped out wearing a simple gray T-shirt and black jeans (is there such a thing? I wouldn't know. I don't wear jeans. Oh well!). She held a black sweater in her arms. She wasn't the kind of person who cared what she looked like, and would but on what ever she could grab out of her closet first. She didn't know why, but she wanted to look decent for once, and decided dark colors would please Hiei.

"Ready to go?" Hiei, apparently, was slightly pleased with the way she looked, though he tried not to show it.

They began to walk into town.

"Where are we going Hiei?" but before she finished her sentence, they arrived outside a small, fancy restaurant. They saw Kurama and some girl waiting for them. Kurama called them over, once reaching her friends, Ume screamed. "What's she doing here?" She pointed at Tsume, who was doing the same thing, and shouting the same words.

"Hiei!" Ume yelled at fire youkai (demon).

"Kurama!" Tsume yelled him...

"You both set us up, didn't you!" they yelled in unison.

Kurama and Hiei just stood there. They had expected the screaming and shouting, but they weren't expecting it to be that deafening.  
-  
Hidden in the near by bushes were Yusuke and Kuwabara, watching the dates in action.

"Why do I have to be here? I had nothing to do with this." Kuwabara had been complaining the whole time.

"Because I forced you here." was his response, "Now shut up. The girls might hear us. We have to make sure Hiei and Kurama don't mess anything up and make the two fight even more."  
-  
"I made reservations here. Why don't we hurry up and eat?" Kurama pointed to the restaurant.

The two girls glared at Kurama.

"What makes you think I'm going into the same place as her?" Tsume pointed to Ume.

"What makes you think I'd want to eat in front of her. I might barf when I see her face." Ume pointed back.

The boys eventually calmed them down a bit and got them to go inside, one way or the other… They sat in a booth, both girls on one side, the guys on the other. In the next booth, right behind Ume and Tsume, were Yusuke and Kuwabara. A waiter came to the two and asked for their order. All they did was order drinks.  
-  
"Why do I have to sit next to her?" Ume complained. "This just isn't my night."

The foursome gave their order. They all ordered Coke, but different meals. Out of no where, some guy appeared and began to hit on Tsume. "What's your name?"

"None of your business."

"Ok, would you like to go out some time?"

Ume wasn't fond of Tsume, but there were things she hated more. Like having her date interrupted, and pushy guys who don't know how to take a hint when you want them to leave. She was completely annoyed and the guy and decided to take a try at making him go away.

"How about this? Kami here will go out with you on November 31. But only if you leave us alone."

"What! I never agreed-"

"Shut up you." She grunted at her.

"All right! It's a deal!" the irritating boy left the group.

"What was that all about! There's no way I'm going out with him!"

"Don't worry, there is no November 31st."

"Oh…" (Sorry, I got the idea of using the whole 'November 31st' thing from another non-FanFic related story. Hope you don't mind if you've seen this before).

After watching the little scene happen, Kurama whispered to Hiei. "Did Ume just help Tsume?"

"Hn. Maybe Urameshi's plan is actually working. Who knew?"

Once again, a waiter passed by, holding a tray with a chocolate shake on top of it. He suddenly stopped at Tsume. "Hello there."

Ume sighed. "And here we go again…" she rolled her eyes. "Well, thanks to the Beauty Queen, no one is going to have a good time…" She thought.

The male waiter unexpectedly smirked. Ume noticed this and wondered what was going on. The boy began to converse with Tsume, while she just ignored him and continued talking with Kurama. He 'accidentally' dropped it on their table. A bit of frosting that was on top of the shake flew to Tsume's face.

"Oh no. My mistake. Let my clean this up." He grabbed a damp towel and wiped Tsume's face clean. Unknowing to them, while the group wasn't looking, the waiter grabbed her necklace and pulled it off so carefully, she didn't even notice it was stolen.

Kurama saw him wipe Tsume's face and decided the youth should stop. "I think that Kami (her human name, in case you've forgotten) will live. I think you should clean up the mess before our lunch gets here."

"All right. I'll be leaving and getting more towels."

As he left, Ume couldn't help but to feel there was something strange about the boy. It was her sixth sense kicking in again. And not the Spirit Awareness kind, it was where she just got a feeling something bad will happen, or has happened. And usually, she was right. She continued to gaze at the waiter and finally Hiei interrupted Ume's train of thought. He was sounding irritated because he noticed that she was looking at the waiter. "When are our orders going to get here?"

"I never knew you to be impatient, Hiei." Ume said, shrugging off her sixth sense, and laughed.

"Hn."

* * *

Hmm…I had plenty ideas for my story. This time it won't have a bad ending like my last story. Since I had all these ideas, I couldn't fit them all into one chapter, but I didn't know a good place to end it, so don't have me for ending it in an awkward place. Bye! Oh, and thanks to all these ideas, chapter 11 is soon to come! 


	11. Unexpected Jewel Thief

In the last chapter…ok…it's late, I'm sleepy, and…I forgot, so I'm just gonna start typing the story now…  
:stops andtries to sneak away from my evil friend...:

* * *

The waiter had finally gotten the mess cleaned up and the drinks, not the food, had finally arrived. The people in the booth behind the girls let out a laugh at the events the girls and their 'dates' went through. Tsume just lost it and sat up in the booth and yelled at the two boys. They both hid behind their menus, covering their faces. 

She stopped yelling. "Have I seen you two before...?"

"No that's impossible! We…I…umm…NO!"

It was the same waiter who spilled the ice cream who brought the sodas. The guy had place the jewel he stole in his pocket (who knew those waiter uniforms had pockets?) and something strange happened.

Ume's locket suddenly began to emit a dim light. She made an excuse and said she got a sudden headache. Luckily for her, she was sitting on the outside of the booth. She excused herself from the table and ran for the bathroom, holding her head as she ran. When she got up to leave, she almost knocked the waiter down and almost made him drop the soda on Tsume. Luckily for Tsume, he maintained his balance.

Hiei watched her run off. Concerned, he asked if Tsume would go and see if she was alright. Tsume looked at Kurama, but he was concerned too and Tsume was able to see this. She slide across the booth and mumbled something about Ume being fine, and her not needing any help.

Ume ran into the one-stalled bathroom and locked the door behind and she went in. She stood in front of the mirror. Ume was completely baffled as she held the gleaming jewelry. She heard a knock at the door.

"Are you all right. I was forced to check on you." The person outside said. It was Tsume.

The glow's brightness decreased but it was still there. Ume jerked it off and wrapped it in the sweater she was holding. The light was unnoticeable by anyone or anything, except maybe Hiei's Jagan. She walked to the door and assured Tsume she was fine.

"Good, now this date can continue. Maybe it'll go back to normal." She glared at Ume.

"What? Are you implying that this is strangeness my fault! If it weren't for those stupid guys that hit on you, the night would have been normal!"

"Let's let the boys decide whose fault it was."

They stomped back to their booth, only to discover the guys were gone, and so were the annoying people in the next booth.

"I CAN'T BELIEVE THEY LEFT US LIKE THIS!"

"You must have scared them off…" Ume mumbled.

Tsume turned around and shot Ume a glare. "WHAT!"

"Never mind that. We should go and find them. I have a bad feeling about all this."

"Huh?"

"Call it a seventh sense. An additional sense to my Spirit Awareness."

"Humph. Well, let's hurry up."

As they ran, something stopped Tsume. She noticed something strange in the alley close by. A shadow was moving about and Tsume noticed the movement among darkness. She stopped Ume and signaled her to cover her back incase the figure meant harm, although she'd rather have someone else, anyone else, to cover her back.

She took slow steps toward the figure, then, Ume just walked by her, looking impatient. She quickly grabbed the creature. It was the waiter again, except he was bleeding every where and had bruises all over. "Listen. My friends are gone, some weird guys are gone, and now you appear nearby, not doing your job, and all cut up and bloody! Tell me that that isn't suspicious."

Tsume shook her head. "I never knew there could be a girl who is so unfeminine."

"What'd you say!" As Ume was getting ticked, the human tried to escape but she grabbed it again. "Now listen. Tell me what you know, or you won't live to see tomorrow."

"Ok, ok! I'll talk!"

"I can't believe those threats worked…" Tsume murmured.

Ume simply ignored her.

"Some guy named Ronin hired me to do this. He paid a whole mess of money too. I was to steal some jewel from her," The boy pointed to Tsume, "and I did."

"Impossible. I still have it right…here…?" she touched her neck. The necklace was no where to be found. "Oh no! It is gone!"

"Thank you Tsume, for pointing out the obvious."

"I gave it to Ronin in this alley, but didn't get my money. I was angry and yelled at him as he left and suddenly called on a bunch of henchmen and they beat me up. I suggest you two not to get involved with that guy. He's dangerous."

Ume took a deep breath and just let him go. He hit the floor with a loud 'thud.' "Ok, here's the deal, you tell us as much as you can about where Ronin is, and we'll let you go. But if anything were to happen, like if we were walking into a trap or something, I'll make sure you pay for what you did."

"I just met the guy and he offered some cash, and I accepted. All I know is that after I gave the jewel thing to him, he went to the restaurant and came out with some guy in black and with spiky hair, a long-haired guy with green eyes, a guy who was tall and had carrot-colored hair, and some black-haired guy who looked like he used way too much hair gel. Just please don't hurt me!"

"Those guys must be Hiei, Kurama, Kuwabara, and Yusuke!" she looked down at the waiter groveling at her feet, let out a sigh, and pointed to him as she talked. "We mine as well leave. This guy has nothing else to tell us."

Tsume was astonished. The girl that had been to hard-headed and hot-tempered, had calmed down and came to her senses quickly. Tsume grinned. "I guess she must truly care for her friends."

"Well Mrs. Smiles? You are the one who knows the most about this guy. You know where he's hiding right?"

"Yea, but what if we are not strong enough. He possesses the jewel now!"

"So what!"

"But…"

"But nothing! Kurama, Hiei, all of them! They risked their lives for you and your stupid jewelry and you pay them back by hesitating when they need your help! I don't care if I have to go alone. I'm going to save my friends! Tell me where he's hiding and I'll find him!"

Tsume stared at the floor, ashamed that she was ever thinking about giving up and retreating. "Alright, but I'm going too!"

"Good, you owe them all one."

"What about you?"

"I don't need favors. Now hurry up and lead the way."

Tsume was stunned at the girl's change of attitude. When it came to her friends, Ume was willing to risk her life for them. Tsume stood there and nodded and with Ume following, they headed off.

The waiter was still on the floor, stunned. "Those girls are crazy! I swear, if they get hurt, it's not my problem!" he started to get up and ran as fast as his injured legs could carry him.

The girls came to a deserted house.

"You're kidding right…? This is his headquarters…?"

"No, this is where there is a break in the barrier separating Makai and here. Once we go through, we won't be far from Ronin, and hopefully, the others."

"Ok! What are we waiting for?"

"But, if we go in…what would happen?"

"Who knows, but it's better than sitting here and waiting for someone else to save the day!" She looked at the break. "We've got to hurry, the break is sealing up!"

They made it through the break only seconds before it was blocked.

"Even if we had time to think, we couldn't have. This barrier is now sealed, and now, we are stuck here until we find the others and locate a different break."

"Does it matter? It's not like we were going to leave once we got here anyways."

* * *

It's a miracle! Ume and Tsume are getting along. Of course, it's only to save the guys. In the next chapter, there will be plenty of suspense, a touch of romance between Tsume and Kurama, and you will all finally see…err...read…some fighting and the powers that were listed before, being used! 


	12. Silent Tears

This chapter will have plenty of action and suspense. And now, to start the chapter…actually, I'm gonna keep you in suspense. Muhahaha:sees flying knives and runs away: Fine, have it your way! Jeez!

* * *

The girls were in Makai without having a way to get back.

"So let's hurry." Tsume said out loud.

As they began to run, they met up with a giant group of demons. Leading them were Yusuke and Kuwabara!

"Tsume, what's going on?"

"It must be the power of the jewel that's controlling them."

"Then why is it only them, and not us?"

A voice boomed noisily. "Because the jewel's power is limited without the other half. For now, I can only control men."

"That's Ronin's voice. I'd recognize it anywhere."

"So if he gets both stones, he can control anything?" Ume questioned Tsume.

"I doubt it, but he would be nearly unstoppable."

"So either way, it's going to be bad."

"Exactly."

"Then I guess we should stop that Ronin guy before he gets both jewels."

Tsume nodded. "Water Staff!" she called out and a blue staff appeared in her hand. She spun it and half of all the demons got caught in the water tornado.

"Wolf Ray!" The last half was destroyed by the attack.

Tsume had called upon her Fire Blade and was trying to slash Kuwabara. For a split second, he let his guard down and Tsume cut him.

Yusuke charged at Ume and she used her Weapon Ball. She turned it into a spear and jumped into the air. She held her spear, pointing downward. She threw it and a small explosion occurred, blowing Urameshi up a tree. He fell out, landing on his head. He began to get up.

"How are we going to beat these guys without hurting them too badly?"

"They aren't as strong as they should be, Ronin doesn't know how to use their full potential while he's in control."

The cry, "Spirit Gun!" was heard and the two girls jumped out of the way of the blow.

"But did I mention that Ronin now knows all their attacks, including their strongest one?"

"No actually, you didn't."

Kuwabara used his Spirit Sword. He and Tsume clashed swords until Kuwabara eventually let his guard down and was cut. Thanks to the fire that was coming out of the blade, it was stronger, and Kuwabara blacked out.

Another Spirit Gun was fired and Ume jumped into the air avoiding the blow. She used her Weapon Ball, turned it into a spear and threw it down at Yusuke. A tiny explosion occurred, knocking him to a wall. "Wolf Claws." All of the little balls hit Yusuke in the stomach, knocking him out.

"Sorry about that Yusuke!" Ume called out as she ran toward the main tower where Ronin was controlling her friends with Tsume.

They were halfway there, slaying demons on the way, when they met with Hiei.

"Hey Tsume," Ume stood there, glaring at Hiei as she spoke. "Go on ahead and find Kurama. I'll handle Hiei and catch up."

"But…"

"No time for that! We have to stop Ronin before he gets the second stone. Besides, you have to save your boyfriend right?"

"It's a very good thing none of them will remember what happened while controlled, because if they did, I would have KILLED you for saying that."

"What ever. Just get going will you?"

Tsume ran.

"So…you can't remember any of this huh? Well, here's a little something I've always wanted to do to you ever since that girl, Tsume, appeared."

Ume ran up to him and kicked Hiei in the face.

"That's what you get for cheating on me, you jerk!" she smiled, glad that she finally got that out of her system, and thankful that Hiei wasn't going to remember her kick.

Tsume continued to run down long corridors. From time to time, there'd be a hallway that'd lead to a dead end and she'd have to retrace her steps. She eventually got to some room with double doors. "This must be it." She thought to herself, and she stepped in. Inside, she saw something she never wanted to ever see. Kurama was kneeling on the floor in front of Ronin, and Ronin, with complete control over Kurama.

"Seems like you friend is taking a long time with the little fire youkai (apparition)."

Her Lightning Arrows appeared in her hands and was aimed for Ronin's head.

"Tsk, tsk. You wouldn't want to do anything rash would you? Not since I have this demon's life in my hands."

Tsume lowered her weapon.

"Now little Tsume, drop down on your knees, and beg for your life."

As Hiei's katana (sword…duh) and Ume's Weapon Ball, which was turned into a sword, battled one another, Ume wasn't too concerned. She knew that Hiei could run much faster than he was running then, she knew that Ronin wasn't able to use Hiei to his fullest. Dodging endless blows, Ume was able to strike back a few times.

"At least he hasn't used his…" Ume wasn't able to finish her thoughts, for at that moment, Hiei shouted the words Ume was thinking.

"Dragon of the Darkness Flame!"  
-  
"I would never bow down to the likes of you."

"You should, if you value his life at all."

He commanded Kurama to take out his Rose Whip. And he did. Then, Ronin told Kurama to hold it against his own neck.

"Do it. Beg as if your life depends on it, because truth be told, it does. Yours, and his." He pointed to Kurama who's Rose Whip was only inches from taking his own life.

"Crud!" Ume jumped out of the way seconds before the Dragon hit the spot where she was standing.

The powerful technique had burned a small portion of her foot. Ume saw her foot, nearly burnt to a crisp. She knew she was in trouble. She wasn't able to move as fast and Hiei was just as swift as he was before. Suddenly, an idea hit Ume. She started taunting and mocking Hiei in every way she thought possible. Anything to make him mad enough to use his most powerful technique again and again. And that's exactly what Hiei continually did.

After some time, Ume was tired. She couldn't keep dodging the attacks forever, so she stopped taunting, but still, Hiei continued to use his attack, until he stopped.

"Did my plan work?" she asked herself, breathlessly. Hiei was firing up for more Dragon of the Darkness Flames. Abruptly, he fell. "I can't believe this. It actually worked." Ume knew for fact that using so many Darkness Flame techniques would wear Hiei out. Eventually, it would have gotten to the point where he couldn't fight anymore, and he'd just collapse.

"All right. Three down, two to go. I hope Tsume's handling Kurama and Ronin ok without me." She got up and began walking as fast as she could, towards where she saw Tsume go off to.

On her knees, Tsume felt weak and feeble. She didn't want Kurama to be hurt just because she hadn't realized that her jewel was stolen. She didn't want him pay for her mistakes.

"Now Kurama. Hit her until she bleeds. Make her pay for not giving me the jewel form the beginning, and making me go through all this to get it." Ronin ordered him.

Kurama raised his Rose Whip and something made it fall from his hand. It was a small throwing knife, made from Ume's Weapon Ball.

"How'd…how'd you get here so fast?" Ronin was puzzled.

"Wasn't hard to follow Tsume's awful scent all the way over here."

"Darn you, Wolf."

Ume helped Tsume to her feet and created another knife and threw it at the chain holding the jewel around Ronin's neck. It fell to the floor and Ume dove for it.

"I believe this belongs to you." She threw it towards Tsume and she caught it.

"Kurama, get the jewel back." Kurama fell to the ground, unconscious.

"Sorry Ronin, but we have the jewel back, and that means you have no control over anything…" Ume began saying.

"Except, you do get to choose which way you are going to die. By her? Or by me?" Tsume finished the threat.

A little while later, Tsume was down on the floor looking at Kurama's unconscious body. She wrapped her arms around him and held on tightly. "I'm so sorry about all this Kurama. I didn't mean to get any of you involve." She cried silently on Kurama's shoulder. (Right now, I'm going "AWWW how kawaii (cute)!" lol)

* * *

When I said 'a touch of romance', I meant a touch of it. That was so little…My bad. I didn't think I was going to type so much for this chapter. This was a pretty long chapter because I wanted to get at least one romantic part in it, so I made it longer than I intended it to be. I guess the romantic part will have to wait until I'm done with the next chapter. Well, until then! 


	13. One Rainy Night

I'm just starting to type this chapter and I think there isn't much romance in this chapter either! I can't believe this! Forget it! I'm fitting the romance in this chapter even if it kills me. Ume and Hiei have had too much time in the spotlight. Although, I personally don't mind, but I bet my Kurama-loving friend does…Save me!

* * *

"Get up already. You look pathetic. Here." Ume handed Tsume a handkerchief and her necklace. "Sorry, I guess I kind of broke it." She looked over her shoulder and saw Ronin on the floor trying to crawl away (in the last chapter, I never put that he died, now did I?), looked back to Tsume, and she let out a sigh of annoyance. "I'll finish him…" 

Ronin shot a ball of Spirit Energy at Ume.

"What the heck?" Ume got hit pretty hard in the stomach, but she was able to move out of the way enough so that the blow wasn't fatal.

"Next time you won't be so lucky."

"What? I thought you couldn't fight." Tsume was just as surprised as Ume was.

"You think with all the human money I own, and all the schemes I'm involved in, I can't fight? How else am I supposed to protect myself when my cheated clients get ugly?"

Tsume picked up Kurama and placed him in the corner of the room where, hopefully, his defenseless body wouldn't get hurt. "Ok, come on. Let's see how well you are at fighting."

She used her Lightning Arrows and shot some at Ronin. He knocked them away easily and shot a blast at Tsume. Ume jumped over Tsume and shot out her Wolf Claws and hit Ronin, as well as the ground he was standing on. The smoke began to clear and some blast shot from it and hit Ume.

Ume stood next to Tsume and suddenly her locket, which she had kept in her pocket ever since it stopped glowing, glowed again. "What's going on with that thing Ume?" Then, Tsume's gemstone glowed too. "You know what this means right?"

Ume nodded slightly. "But how can a locket…my locket…be a stone?"

"It must have been made out of the other half. Melted down, and painted or something so it'd look like a normal locket."

"Alright then, since you're the expert, try explaining to me how to get the two of these things together."

"That's the problem. The protectors of the jewels have actually get along, which we obviously do not." She said as she dodged a blow.

"Engulfing Darkness." Ume cried out as the technique went straight for Ronin. "That won't kill him, but it will keep him busy for a while. Now how are we going to solve this little predicament?"

"We can try to get along, but faking it won't work."

"Oh please, that's not going to happen."

"Why not? You were the one who said that you'd do anything for your friends! Kurama…I mean, all of them need your help!"

"Now tell me! What do you possibly know about me!"

"What do YOU know about ME!"

"I know enough! You are born into some family who protects some jewel. Basically it right!"

Tsume remained silent, and Ume was able to tell that she was right. "How would I know anything about you? What have you ever said? You pretend to act like the girl who's in the middle of everything, the girl who gets along with people, but all you do is tell nobody anything. You barely tell any of the other about yourself! I'm probably the only one who's noticed it!"

Tsume hit Ume where it hurt. "I…I…I cannot believe you just said that…"

"So what if I did?"

"It's just that…no one ever bothered to realize that about me. Hiei's probably the only other person who has noticed but he's never said anything about it. It's either that, or he just didn't notice as well…"

Tsume looked taken back for a second. She wasn't expecting Ume to remain calm about what she just said.

"Not even Hiei huh? You must be pretty good at acting." She laughed a bit.

"Hah. Not even." She stopped. "Those last couple of sentences, did we actually talk, and NOT fight?"

"Wow, that's scary."

They laughed more.

Abruptly, the two's conversation was interrupted by a loud explosion coming from the Darkness. Ronin had finally escaped and the jewel's glow grew stronger. They rose in to the air and combined (that was corny but hey, I had no other ideas on how they combined…) and turned into some kind of scepter. The staff glowed and landed right in between Ume and Tsume.

The two looked at each other, surprised they managed to get along at all. Ume smirked. "Enough standing around! I want this pest out of my hair once and for all." She grabbed the scepter and pointed it at Ronin, but nothing happened. "You're kidding! It's not even working without both people! What a rip-off!"

Tsume grabbed the handle of the scepter too and it blasted Ronin. Ronin lied on the floor, dead, finally.

Eventually, after much searching and wandering, the two found another break in the barrier and carried the boys, who were STILL unconscious, through it. They found themselves in the middle of the park lake, near a bench and some bushes. They put down Hiei and Kurama on the bench. Soon after they threw Yusuke and Kuwabara into the bushes, they all woke up.

"Hey you two. Glad to see you're awake after what just happened."

Tsume nudged Ume's arm, signaling her not to tell the boys about what happened and Ume nudged her arm back and whispered. "Just go along with what I say."

"What did happen?" Hiei asked so tiredly, that it seemed like he was talking more to himself than the girls.  
-  
Yusuke and Kuwabara began to stir as well. "What the heck happened?"

They woke up just in time to hear the conversation going on between the 'dates.'

"The stupid waiter got the drinks messed up and gave you guys and the table behind us, uh…"

"…Wine! After a while, you guys passed out and we brought you hear and we just waited until you two woke up." Tsume finished her lie.

"Sorry, I guess we ruined the date." Kurama apologized.

Ume interrupted. "It's alright, besides, I doubt being set up like this was going to be fun. Isn't that right, Yusuke and Kuwabara?" she called out to the bushes.

"You two found out about that didn't you?" Hiei looked embarrassed to know two people who couldn't hide from two girls.

"Wasn't that hard, considering the fact that I did recognize them at the restaurant and that we found the two passed out in their booth." She gave a laugh. "But don't worry, we forgive you."

"Did you just say we?"

"Yea. Me and Tsume."

The boys, including the two in the bushes, looked amazed.

"How long were we out?"

"Oh come on Hiei. Tsume and I weren't getting along that badly." She looked up at the moon and finally realized that it was at least 11 P.M. "It's getting late, I should get home. Coming Hiei? After all, you're still supposed to stay at my place for one night. And it's raining later tonight and in the morning anyways." She grabbed Hiei's wrist and ran home, but before she left, she said something to Tsume, "How about we never tell the boys about what happened while they were out? Deal?"

"Deal."

The boys looked confused again.

"Bye Tsume, Kurama, YUSUKE, and KUWABARA!" she called out as she practically dragged Hiei home with her.  
-

"This is completely your fault that we were caught you know that?" Yusuke whispered to Kuwabara.

"This was your fault you starting this whole thing, and making me come along."

"That plan worked didn't it? Tsume and Ume are friends now!"

Along the way she started shouting at him, "For running my whole entire night, you have no choice but to make it up to me by modeling for another picture (see story 1-chapter 11 for more details)."

"You're joking right?"

"Nope."

"I'm sorry Tsume." Kurama turned to her. "This wasn't much of a date was it?"

"It's ok. You were only trying to make me and Ume get along. And it worked." She smiled.

"Maybe we should go out again."

"Huh? Another date?" she heard a sudden snicker coming from the bushes and she kicked a pebble at the bush and hit Yusuke.

"More like something to show my deepest apologizes."

"Either way, I accept!"

"Alright. How about tomorrow night?"

"Ok! Just make sure Yusuke and Kuwabara don't tag along."

Kurama nodded. Tsume was being walked home by Kurama and she was excited about their next date…err…the showing of his 'deepest apologizes'.

They were halfway there when it started raining just as Ume thought. They ran and waited under a tree, planning to stay there until the rain's drizzling slowed down. As they looked up at the clouded night sky Tsume commented something about it. "Maybe the human world isn't all that great either. It still rains, it gets cloudy, and people do still get hurt."

Once again, Kurama already knew this but kept quiet and just nodded in agreement.

"No matter what world you go to, there will be problems there. Whether in Makai, or here. There are those who kill no matter what. Everyone kills, it's in their blood. That's probably the only thing every being have in common with everything else."

Kurama was moved by these words.He stared at Tsume face. She stared back. Their faces moved closer to each other until their lips were almost touching. Then…

* * *

Another long chapter. Once again there was little romance but the ending part made up for that. I'm so jealous of Tsume and Kurama, I should make Hiei and Ume's romance a little more…well…romantic… The next and final chapter will have more of it though, but most of it will be just normal junkies. I was planning on making this chapter the last one, but I still need to stick the romance in so lucky for you people, one more to go! 


	14. Just a Joke

At the end of the last chapter, Tsume and Kurama were about to…well…you get it…and the last word was 'Then…' and it ended. This chapter will continue right after 'Then…' so I put this so that you won't get confused.

* * *

Lightning flashed and thunder boomer. Kurama pulled away from Tsume, who was looking completely red in the face.

"You look sick. You must be catching a cold." The rain slowed its harshness and Kurama felt Tsume's forehead. "I'll walk you back to your home. Maybe we shouldn't go out tomorrow night. You are ill."

"No I'm not." She sneezed. "Ok, maybe a little. But we can still go."

"You should rest tomorrow. I'll tell the teacher at school that you took ill."

Tsume nodded, thanking Kurama silently, wishing she hadn't been careless and gotten sick. She looked up and saw Kurama leaving. She wasn't paying attention when he said that he had to leave. She remembered him saying something else about the next night, but she couldn't recall what it was. Tsume dragged herself back to her apartment and went straight to bed and slept the rest of the night and half of the next day, hoping to recover quickly.

It rained all last night, the whole day, and during the evening as well. About 5:00 PM, Tsume heard the doorbell of the apartment ring. She answered it and saw Kurama outside holding an umbrella. "Hello." He greeted her. He looked down at her and saw she was still in her pajamas. "That's not how you're going out are you?"

Tsume blushed. "What do you mean going out?"

"I said I'd pick you up at 5, and its 5 right now."

"What happened to 'You're sick.'?"

"I said if you rested and got better, we'd still be able to go. That's why I suggested you miss school for a day. Weren't you listening?" he said patiently.

"Of course I was. I just fell asleep just now and I slept through my alarm clock…! Can you wait and let me change?"

She changed quickly into something more presenting and something that looked less like she was going to be so bored, she'd fall asleep. She wore a red Tee, khaki pants, a green rose-like hair band to tie it up with, and of course, her gemstone. She began to act like she had just fallen asleep the whole time, and not that she didn't hear Kurama while he was talking the previous night.

They headed towards the park.

"I've never seen this place wile it rains. It very nice here." Tsume commented.

"I knew you'd like it here."

After walking around the park once or twice, they left, going to the same restaurant they were at the night before. Fortunately, they got the same waiter who wanted to apologize to what he did by serving them a free dinner and desert. He also asked them to do him a favor. "If you see your other two friends here again, tell them to have their next date here so I can make it up to them too."

"But they don't go on…umm…ok. Will do." Tsume grinned widely.

Kurama assumed the waiter meant that he was apologizing for interrupting the double date, though that wasn't it at all. He quietly drank his tea as the waiter continually apologized to Tsume. When she finally managed to get rid of him, the boy and girl ate their food in silence. They got up to leave soon after.

Outside, the duo noticed a stray umbrella on the street. Kurama picked it up and they looked for its owners. Soon they also heard some yelling.

"Where's the umbrella?" one of the voices screamed out. It was female.

"I don't know." A male replied.

"You last had it. I just left for a second and you end up losing the umbrella."

The two sounded like a married couple in an argument. When Tsume mentioned this, they saw that the 'married couple' was Hiei and Ume. Tsume and Kurama laughed when hey saw who the two were. He grabbed the stray umbrella and gave it to the two.

"Thanks Kurama."

"What are you two doing outside in the rain?"

"Hiei was still at my place because of the rain. My mother asked me to go get food and Hiei volunteered to go instead of me, so I don't get sick, I insisted, my mother suggested we both go, and here we are. I go inside to get the stuff and Hiei refused to go inside and dwell with humans, so he stayed outside with the umbrella and manages to lose it. Good day so far if you ask me." Ume said, only half sarcastic. Secretly, she didn't mind spending it with Hiei. Although, having Hiei lose their umbrella during a storm wasn't the best ever.

She saw Tsume and Kurama together. "What's your excuse?"

The two looked at each other. "Kurama bought me dinner to make up for yesterday…"

Ume burst out laughing as she held a bag of groceries. "That's it, is it?"

The rain began to fall even harder and all had to leave. They said their good byes and left. Kurama and Tsume left together.

As Ume and Hiei left together as well, Hiei grabbed the grocery bags that Ume was having trouble holding on her own. As they walked, Ume slipped on some water and fell on top of Hiei. They both dropped the groceries.

"I'm sorry Hiei. Clumsy me." She looked down to see where she had fallen and finally realized she was on top of Hiei. She got up hastily and nearly fell on top of the groceries. Hiei got up and saw their umbrella on the road. A car passed by and ran it over.

"This just isn't my day." Ume said to herself.

She helped Hiei up and they were both stuck in the rain, with a long walk ahead of them before they got back to Ume's house. Hiei grabbed Ume's wrist after she was done picking up all the bags. He led her to a cave hidden amongst the trees of the park.

"So this is where you go when it rains and you're not at my house?"

Hiei ignored her comment. "We should stay here until the rain clears up."

Ume laid down the bags and Hiei started a fire with some wood that was in the cave already. As the rain cleared up, they began to leave to Ume's room again.

Hiei looked back into the cave. "Why are you leaving half the bags here?"

"Well, the cave doesn't flood, so I guess you should keep some of the food. I just left the food that doesn't need to be cooked and is sealed up and some water bottles. I'll just say that the rain washed the food away. My mother won't mind. Come on, before they all get worried." Ume smiled.

Hiei was taken back. He noticed something. Ume's smile changed. It seemed genuine; it wasn't fake like most of the smiles he had seen before. The past ones had seemed empty.

He smirked. "You seem a lot better after last night."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"Hn. Never mind."

Tsume led the way back to Kurama's apartment.

"Now it's my turn to walk you back."

"That's not how it traditionally works but…"

"Hey, I just got here from Makai about a month ago. You can't expect me to know every human custom and tradition."

Kurama couldn't argue with that, and he didn't really mind. He was just hoping to go to Tsume's residence because it was farther away, and the walk there would be longer.

As the two talked on Kurama doorstep, three girls from their school snuck by.

"I knew Shuichi was coming by eventually. But who's that with him?"

"It's that new girl!"

"And she's making a move on our man!"

"We'll take of that, won't we ladies."

Ume and Hiei decided to take a short-cut home and passed by Kurama's apartment. They saw the girls and eavesdropped to what they were saying. Ume got an evil look in her eyes. "Hey Hiei, Kurama's your friend right? And Tsume mines right?"

Hiei didn't think he'd ever get used to hearing that she and Tsume were friends but he nodded anyways.

"So you wanna help our good friends AND have some fun with a bunch of stupid humans?" She whispered into his ear and he nodded.

Ume whispered out to the girls, "Come here you three. I figured out a good way to get back at that new girl for liking Shuichi." She tried to remember to use her friend's human names.

The girls jumped at the voice but they listened to it for they didn't have any ideas themselves. The voice led them to some alley where they saw Ume and Hiei there on top of a building.

"Wait, you're not in our school. How do you know Shuichi?" one of them said.

Ume jumped down and the girls were surprised that she didn't break a leg. Hiei came next. He drew his katana in the shadows and threatened the girls.

"If you go anywhere near the two…"

"We'll make sure you pay for it." Ume finished off the sentence.

"Wait a second." The girl who seemed to be the leader interrupted in a tone full of terror. "That guy…he has a sword…and that girl…she's the toughest girl in the whole district. She's beaten up gangs and gangs of people from ours, and she hangs with that legendary Urameshi guy."

The other girls shuddered and ran for it. Hiei jumped over them and blocked the exit.

"Make sure you don't go anywhere near those two. Got it?" Ume barked from behind them.

"Ok! We swear!" the leader said, frantic.

Hiei let them passed and they ran, bumping into each other and screaming. Ume and Hiei looked at each other as the girls ran. They began laughing so hard they almost fell over.

"Would you like to step inside for a moment Tsume?" Kurama offered.

Tsume accepted the offer. He made tea for the two of them and they drank it.

"Where's your mother Kurama?"

"She's probably asleep by now."

"'By now'…?" Tsume looked at the clock ticking away on the wall. It was already past 9:30. "I can't believe how late it is. We must have spent at least an hour and a half on your doorstep."

"Yes. I suppose so."

"I had lots of fun tonight and it definitely makes up for last night. Thank you for letting me tag along with you."

"I invited you. You don't have to thank me for letting you 'tag along'. And I had just as much fun as you did."

"I'll see you at school tomorrow. I'll guess that you'll be the one swarmed by girls?"

"I'm hoping not. I'd be able to see you a lot easier if they weren't there."

"Shuichi, are you home now?" it was Shuichi's mother, looking slightly worried.

"Yes."

"You brought company. Nice to see you again Kami."

"Huh?" Tsume was so used to being called by her real name by her friends, she forgot about her human name. "Oh, of course. Same to you Mrs. Minamino (that's their last name right?). Well, I must be going now. Good bye Shuichi."

As she left Shuichi's mother turned to her son. "How was your date?"

"Mother…"

"It was just a joke Shuichi." She waved her hand playfully but slowly.

"Good night Mother."

He whispered to himself in the quiet, seemingly isolated room. "Maybe it was 'just a joke'."

He sighed and turned out the lights.

* * *

It's a miracle. I managed to fit romance with both matches in this last chapter and some humor at the end. This was probably my longest and most romantic chapter yet! Not only that, the ending was a good one, unlike my last story. Anyways, here's something important that you SHOULD read.

NOTE: I have ideas for the next FanFic, but you get to decide what I'm typing up next. A Gundam SEED FanFic, a Rurouni Kenshin one, or the third Yu Yu Hakusho FanFic? Review the story, or any chapter of this story, or my last one and at the end put 'Poll option: Whatever you pick here' and the poll will end on April 1st. You can e-mail me or what ever. I'll count up the polls and decide what to make next! So vote, vote, vote! Signing off now. Bye!

Current poll results: 4 for YYH

Gundam SEED: 0

Rurouni Kenshin: 3  
poll closed


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